Lib Dems: Eyes Wide Shut

How about this for a subtle attempt by the Lib Dems at image manipulation?

It seems that the unfortunately named Lib Dem councillor Michael Howard, who represents Holmwoods in Mole Valley appeared in a recent Lib Dem election snap with his eyes shut.

The snap was forwarded to the Surrey Advertiser for publication. The paper pointed out that Cllr Howard appeared to be asleep on the job, confirming what Labour councillors in Lambeth tend to think of Lib Dems. The paper refused to use the substandard picture.

Rather than take another picture, this blunt refusal prompted some Lib Dem, who I can imagine sitting alone in a Mole Valley bedroom, to painstakingly provide Cllr Howard with some makeshift eyes.

Have you ever seen anything like it? Blinking Lib Dems.

Happy St George's Day!

I spent the beginning of it outside the new entrance to Streatham Common Station with Labour's Val Shawcross, London Assembly Member for Lambeth and Southwark. We were of course campaigning to win votes in the forthcoming elections, and got a good reception.

Val was a big help in the campaign to get the new entrance built and open after years of struggle, as well as the new N133 night bus for Streatham Vale. She is a very hard worker and I hope she is re-elected.

After cycling to the Town Hall in the rain I was pleased to see, as I sped down Brixton Hill, that the red cross of St George had been run up the flagpole.

There's a constant reminder of England's patron saint in the form of an impressive stained glass window at the top of the main stairs. It's always an impressive sight when you are climbing the stairs, not because it is Edwardian stained glass speaking of England and Empire, but because the Third Century Anatolian-born martyr is also a patron saint of Aragon, Catalonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Palestine, Portugal and Russia. An appropriate figure in stained glass for a town hall serving a diverse borough like Lambeth.

Talking of unity, I was pleased, as the new Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure and Sport, to help launch the Lambeth year of reading at Brixton Library this afternoon. The intention is to encourage people across the borough to read more, and pass a love of reading down to the next generation. The Lambeth Readers and Writers Festival will be a series of inspiring events for all ages and tastes. There will be talks by bestselling authors, discussions with new authors and poetry readings, as well as a play to mark the 60th anniversary of the Empire Windrush.

Wednesday in the Park with Lib, Jim, Nigel and Flo

This evening I did the 5k Your Way run, which had been organised by the central London boroughs. The run was around Regent's Park, and it was great to see so many keen Lambeth staff taking part - out of work hours - and doing really well at the finishing post.

My fellow Labour councillors Lib Peck, Jim Dickson, Nigel Haselden and Florence Nosegbe ran alongside me. Conservative councillor Andrew Gibson was there too, not running but filling in with the civic aspects as a former Mayor. I didn't spot any Lib Dem councillors in running gear, but I'm happy to be corrected.

I used to do a fair amount of long distance running at school and university, and I still jog when I have time - mostly round Streatham Common, using the hill there for endurance.

But I currently have bruised ribs from a cycling accident a few nights ago, so I took it at a steady pace and finished in something like 28 minutes. Chief Executive Derrick Anderson was at the side of the course, loudly spurring on the Lambeth runners.

It was a great experience for all involved, and personally I feel inspired to do more 'competitive' running, which was one intention of the event. I picked up a flyer for the Royal Parks half-marathon later in the year and hope to be able to take part in that and maybe raise some money for charity.

Sorrow for Vassall

After a determined, exploitative and corrosive campaign against Labour by the Lib Dems in Vassall ward, we had to accept defeat at around midnight last night.

I was in the Assembly Hall at Lambeth Town Hall for the count, watching uncomfortably as the greater number of ballot papers stacked up for the Lib Dems.

In the end Labour's Andy Flannagan - a good comrade and hard-working campaigner - lost by 859 votes to identikit Lib Dem Steve Bradley's 1209. Andy, a candidate of substance and character, would have made an excellent councillor and I hope he goes the distance and is elected in 2010. As a by-election candidate myself, I know what it's like to be personally attacked by Lib Dems, and how hard Andy worked to promote a positive vision for the ward.

The weather was terrible - bitterly cold, windy and wet - for much of the day, which is never a good sign. The recent attacks on Ken Livingstone by the Evening Standard and various other warped anti-Labour messages exploited by the Lib Dems in their tsunami of leaflets, meant much of our hoped-for support stayed at home. There is much to learn from this defeat, and I hope that learning will make Labour in Lambeth stronger.

In my polling day role, cycling round the four polling stations from 7am to 10pm collecting numbers to take back to the committee rooms, I knew that we were not getting our voters out in sufficient numbers - particularly in the Labour-voting areas of the ward. But it was good to see so many Labour activists out on the streets, including many councillors from Lambeth and neighbouring boroughs, and Stephen Twigg braving the harsh weather without a coat.

We faced a swing to the Lib Dems which, if it were to be repeated on a wider scale in the GLA election, would give those charlatans more than enough votes to gain the marginal Lambeth and Southwark division. The challenge for Labour campaigners is to get out on the streets in bigger numbers and make sure that the terrible prospect of losing Val Shawcross as our assembly member, and Ken as our Mayor, is averted.

The Streatham Selection – congratulations to Chuka Umunna

It has been a demanding few months for Streatham Constituency Labour Party, choosing a candidate to fight the next general election and hopefully succeed Keith Hill as our Labour MP.

If you were a candidate, and there were 47 at the outset, including me, there were over 500 members to speak to, spread out across the eight wards of the constituency. Then there were websites to be created and leaflets to be written, printed and delivered, and a team of helpers to keep enthused.

It was always going to be hotly contested, with hopes and energies running high. In the end there can be only one politician smiling at the end of it.

That candidate emerged after a meeting on Saturday at Dunraven School, where I am a governor. The drama hall – what an apt location! – was packed with well over 200 Streatham members. Another 100 or so had voted by post.

My friend Chuka Umunna was the winner, with my friend Steve Reed coming a close second. My congratulations go to the former, and my commiserations to the latter. All the candidates on the shortlist – Dora Dixon-Fyle, Naz Sarkar and Cathy Ashley were the others – would make good MPs in their different ways, and whatever they choose to do in the future they can be proud that they made it as far as the shortlist and to a hustings which was perhaps the biggest CLP meeting Streatham has seen, certainly in my time as a member here.

I didn’t do as well as I had hoped, though I don’t regret putting my name forward. My affection for Streatham is such that I would have regretted not having done so. I had a lot of fun meeting members who, for whatever reason, don’t generally come to party meetings or come out campaigning and explaining to them what I believe in.

I learned a lot, both about the process and about the chemistry of local politics. I ended the process as an ordinary voting member, with a lot of sympathy for the remaining candidates, as well as sympathy for the members, who had been blitzed with paper, as well as phones and doorbells ringing at awkward moments. It’s a relief that it’s over, and we can now concentrate on working with Chuka to defend Streatham for Labour.

If I have a personal highlight, it was being given a teapot by an elderly couple, a kind gift which I will keep as an unusual memento. We had a long chat as I sat in an armchair with their one-eyed cat settled in my lap, and I remember thinking ‘this is the Labour Party I believe in, good, honest people, sharing time, experience, hopes, views and values.’

Farewell, Selassie

In between meetings with the police, I made time to attend the funeral at 1pm today of my constituent and friend Stan Kendall-Morris, who died just after Christmas aged 72, following an illness. I had visited Stan just before Christmas at his home in Streatham Vale. He had just returned from a spell in Trinity Hospice, and was relieved to be home, with a view from his window of his garden.

We had a friendly talk, me sitting at his bedside taking notes as he urged me to press on with gating the alley behind his home. Stan was often on the phone with advice or requests from neighbours, or just for a chat about how things were going.

Stan would always call me “Mark, my councillor” and every time we met he would extend a big, powerful hand and shake mine, holding it tight until he had finished what he wanted to say. For a small man, Stan had very big hands. When Stan’s niece referred to those great big hands in her recollections of her uncle, and all the people he comforted with them, things he made and meals he cooked with them, there was a ripple of approving recognition through the small chapel.

The funeral, which was held at Streatham Vale Crematorium was, I’m pleased but unsurprised to record, very well-attended by Stan’s family and friends from the Streatham Vale Property Occupiers’ Association (SVPOA) and allotment holders from the Vale.

The service was conducted by the vicar of the Holy Redeemer Church, Streatham Vale. Bible readings were followed by a eulogy from Stan’s boyhood friend Dr Randy Chan, now resident in Toronto. While Randy was speaking we were surprised to find out that throughout his boyhood in Guyana, Stan was known universally as Selassie.

We were cheered by anecdotes of Selassie’s early life with his friends in the small village of Rosignol, on the west bank of the Berbice river in Guyana. It sounded like a simple, unhurried life; picking fruit, fetching cans of milk, playing bat and ball, watching the boats go by on their way to New Amsterdam and daydreaming about everything and nothing over shaved ice bought from a man who strolled the streets with a block of ice and fruit syrups to flavour it.

I was surprised that another of Selassie’s boyhood friends was already known to me through my work with Lambeth’s inter-faith forum, Vidur Dindayal. I had never connected the two. Vidur also lives in Lambeth. It’s a small world, he said to me afterwards, with a big smile.

It might not have seemed that way to the young Selassie when, one of ten children, he embarked on a small cargo boat for the two week crossing to England fifty years ago. He settled in London, found work as a telephone engineer, joined the CWU, had a family, but always harked back proudly to his roots in Rosignol.

Friends like Vidur, a Hindu, were close by and a constant reminder of the untroubled ethnic diversity of Rosignol – people of Chinese, Indian and Black Guyanese origin grew up happily together.

Dr Chan told a story about a visit Stan and his widow Norma made to Toronto in 2000. The visitors and their hosts had a meal in the fancy restaurant on top of the CN Tower. After the meal, Stan turned to his old friend Randy with a grin and said “if the folks in Rosignol could see us now, Randy. You understand me? You know what I’m saying?”

I could hear Stan saying it. I will miss the man, his advice and phone calls and his enthusiastic support for his Labour councillors - Stan and his family were kind enough to endorse me during my by-election.

I am glad to have seen my friend one last time before Christmas, though it wasn’t an easy visit to make. Stan – Selassie – was dying, but the grip of those big hands was as strong as ever.